Homelessness in Sydney: Greg Coventry’s fightback from decade-long ice addiction
Greg Coventry spiralled into a decade-long drug addiction after a relationship breakup and spent 18 months on Sydney’s streets. This is how one man found hope in giving back to others.
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It’s the great irony for long-term homeless people.
They finally find accommodation — yet they feel isolated and lonely without their ‘street family’.
Greg Coventry knows this feeling all too well as he battles back from a crippling, decade-long addiction to the deadly drug ‘ice’.
After spending 18 months on the streets of the city and Newtown, Greg is now living in a one-bedroom unit in Earlwood, thanks to the support of Wesley Mission.
However, there was an uneasy response by the 47-year-old when asked how he was adapting to regular life again.
“Life in the house is daunting, really. It’s the strangest thing,” the father-of-one, who says he’s been clean for four months, said.
“On the street, you’ve always got something to do and someone to talk to. But now, it gets lonely sometimes.
“I’m in the middle of getting myself back together and getting to know myself again. I’m not saying I’ll go back on the streets, but it’s a bit like there is a family on the streets.
“That’s why some people actually prefer being out there.”
Greg Coventry worked as a barista in the 1990s — “before coffee was cool” — and, despite some “family challenges”, was leading a normal existence in the inner west.
However, his life spiralled out of control just over a decade ago when he got hooked on ice, one of the greatest scourges of society, after a relationship breakup. His daughter was aged two at the time.
“I just stuffed up on drugs, basically — and got involved with the wrong people and hit rock bottom,” he said, reflecting on how he became homeless about two years ago.
“I had been smoking pot and taking ‘trips’, but ice was the one which badly affected me.
“It hurt my brain and nearly destroyed my soul. You don’t realise how soul-destroying it is when you have to beg for money.”
Asked how he managed to survive for so long on the streets, he said: “I’ve been asking myself that same question; I did somehow.
“You learnt to adapt and manipulate more than you had to, begging for money and doing what you had to do to survive.
“The truth is, there’s a lot of compassion in Sydney — so it meant you could survive.”
Greg has the support staff at Newtown Neighbourhood Centre and Wesley Mission to thank for helping turn his life around.
It’s still early days on the road to recovery, but there’s a great sense of hope and optimism in his voice when asked about the future. And it’s all about helping others to help save himself.
“I’m doing a community services course because I want to help people,” Greg said with a look of determination.
“I’m not trying to look too far into the future. There’s still a lot of stuff I’ve got to do to fix myself up.
“I have plenty of people who want to talk with me, but I don’t have the tools in my brain yet to help them.
“But that will happen. I want to make other people happy and enjoy life, because that will do the same for me.”
‘GENEROUS COMMUNITY’
A sleep-out to help tackle the inner west’s homeless problem has raised a whopping $190,612.
Some 113 Newtopians slept outside in Newtown Square earlier this month as a big show of support for a not-for-profit local homeless service.
“To have tripled the amount from the first to third year of doing this sleep-out is amazing,” Newtown Neighbourhood Centre chief executive officer Liz Yeo said.
“We have a very generous and socially progressive community who want to help the homeless find accommodation and the support they need.
“Raine and Horne and its managing director Michael Harris, who is also one of our volunteers in the homeless outreach program, was amazing in what they did. They, alone, raised over $30,000.
“And Royal Prince Alfred Hospital was great. They had several staff at the sleep-out, and we have had lots of support from other local businesses, including the pubs.”
Ms Yeo said the money raised would go towards its “overall services”, because “the government funding these days is not quite enough to sustain what we want to do”.
“There’s not really any extra money as part of the state government’s (2025) target (of halving homelessness),” she said.
“There’s certainly a lot of goodwill from the government, but it’s the generous support of our community which is making a big difference.
“We are actually getting some great results. This year, 13 people have been housed as part of the centre’s community outreach program.”
The breakthrough comes as the Inner West Council and City of Sydney’s latest homelessness street count shows a growing number of people sleeping rough.
Since 2016, the number of rough sleepers in the inner west has risen from 23 to 30 this year, while an estimated 66 people were staying in temporary and crisis accommodation.
People were rough-sleeping in a range of locations including parks, footpaths, cars, tents, shopfronts and behind offices.
City of Sydney’s street count earlier this year revealed 373 people were sleeping rough and 522 were in crisis and temporary accommodation.
Experts say the figure is much higher when the “hidden homeless” is taken into account.